Saint John Houghton

Additional Memorials

• 4 May as one of the Carthusian Martyrs
• 25 October as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

Profile

Graduated from Cambridge with degrees in civil and canon law. Ordained in 1501 and served as a parish priest for four years. Carthusian monk, doing his noviate in the London Charterhouse, and making his final vows in 1516. Prior of the Beauvale Carthusian Charterhouse in Northampton, England. Prior of the London Charterhouse.

In 1534 he was the first person to oppose King Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy. Imprisoned with Blessed Humphrey Middlemore. When the oath was modified to include the phrase "in so far as the law of God permits", John felt he could be loyal to Church and Crown; he and several of his monks signed the oath, though with misgivings. Father John was released, and a few days later, troops arrived at the chapter house and forced the remaining monks to sign the modified oath.

On 1 February 1535, Parliment required that the original, unmodified oath be signed by all. Following three days of prayer, Father John, with Saint Robert Lawrence and Saint Augustine Webster, contacted Thomas Cromwell to seek an exemption for themselves and their monks. The group was immediately arrested and thrown in the Tower of London. True to his Carthusian vow of silence, John would not defend himself in court, but refused to co-operate or sign anything. The jury could find no malice to the king, but when threatened with prosecution themselves, they found John and his co-defendants guilty of treason.

He became the first person martyred under the Tudor persections, dying with Blessed John Haile and three others. One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Born

1487 at Essex, England

Died

• hanged, drawn, and quartered on 4 May 1535 at Tyburn, London, England
• body was chopped to pieces and put on display around London as an example to others

Canonized

25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI

Representation

• Carthusian monk carrying a noose
• Carthusian with a rope around his neck and holding his heart in his hand

Readings

And what wilt thou do with my heart, O Christ? - Saint John's dying words as he was being disembowelled

Saint Florian of Lorch

Profile

Third century officer in Roman army stationed in modern Austria. Military administrator of the town of Noricum, and a closet Christian. Said to have stopped a town from burning by praying and throwing a single bucket of water on the blaze, and thus his association with firefighters and those who protect us from fire, including chimney sweeps. When ordered to execute a group of Christians during the persecutions of Diocletian, he refused, and professed his own faith. Martyr.

Died

• scourged, flayed alive, a stone tied to his neck, and dumped into a river c.304
• body later retrieved by Christians and buried at an Augustinian monastery near Lorch
• relics translated to Rome in 1138
• part of the relics given to King Casimir of Poland and the bishop of Cracow by Pope Lucius III, which led to Florian's patronage of Poland and Upper Austria

Representation

• bearded warrior with a lance and tub
• boy with a millstone
• classical warrior leaning on a millstone, pouring water on a fire
• dead man on a millstone guarded by an eagle
• dead man whose body is being protected by an eagle
• man being beaten
• man on a journey with a hat and staff
• man thrown into a river with a millstone around his neck
• man with a palm in his hand and a burning torch under his feet
• man with a sword
• young man, sometimes in armor, sometimes unarmed, pouring water from a tub on a burning church

Blessed Jean-Martin Moÿe

Profile

Sixth of thirteen children born to John Moÿe and Catharine Demange. Studied at the College of Pont-à-Mousson, the Jesuit College at Strasburg, and the Seminary of Saint-Simon at Metz, France. Ordained on 9 March 1754 in the diocese of Metz. Helped found schools for poor country children. Founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence in 1762. Superior of the seminary of Saint Dié. Joined the Paris Foreign Mission Society in 1769. Missionary to China in 1773. Repeatedly harassed and imprisoned for spreading the faith. In 1782 he founded the Christian Virgins, a group of religious women who followed the rules of the Congregation of Providence, but were not a formal Congregation; they cared for the sick, and taught Christianity to women and children in their own homes. His health broken, Father Moÿe returned to France in 1784 where he resumed direction of the Sisters of Divine Providence. Preached missions in Lorraine and Alsace in France. Exiled from France in 1791 as part of the French Revolution; he and the Sisters moved to Trier. When French troops captured the city, typhoid fever broke out; he and the Sisters devoted themselves to hospital work where he died of the disease himself.

Born

27 January 1730 in Cutting, Meurthe, France

Died

• 8 February 1793 in Trier, Rhineland Palatinate (modern Germany) of typhoid fever
• the site of his burial is now a public square

Beatified

Blessed Ladislas of Gielniów

Also known as

• Apostle of Lithuania
• Lithuanian Apostle
• Wladyslaw of Gielniów

Profile

Educated at the University of Warsaw, Poland. Joined the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor Observant. Doorkeeper in his monastery. Elected provincial of his Order in 1487 and again in 1496. He sent Franciscan missionaries to Lithuania; their work brought many schismatics back to the Church. A noted preacher, he travelled across Poland, evangelizing from one end to the other. In 1498 he led a prayer campaign to protect Poland from invading Tatars and Turks; a raging winter storm stopped the invaders, the Polish army routed them. and the victory was attributed to the prayer warriors. Abbot of the Warsaw monastery. On Good Friday 1505, while in prayer, Ladislas levitated, hanging in the air as if crucified; when he came down he collapsed completely, and was bed-ridden until his death a few weeks later.

Patronage

Blessed Michal Giedroyc

Also known as

• Michael Giedroyc
• Mykolas Giedraitis

Profile

Born the nobility, related to the princes of Lithuania, Michal suffered from a number of birth defects including being a dwarf and having the use of only one foot. Though his formal education was frequently interrupted and limited, he was an exceptional metal worker. Joined the Augustinian Canons Regular of the Penance of the Blessed Martyrs, an Order now extinct, in Kraków, Poland where he lived as a hermit in a cell next to an Augustinian monastery, and finished his education at the University of Kraków. Known for creating sacred vessels for Mass. Received a vision of Christ who told him, “Be patient until death, and you will receive the crown of life.” Known for the gifts of prophesy and miracles.

Born

c.1425 in Giedraiciai (Giedrojcie), Moletu rajonas, Lithuania

Died

• 4 May 1485 in Kraków, Malopolskie, Poland of natural causes
• buried at the church of Saint Mark in Kraków

Beatified

• relics elevated and enshrined in 1624
• modern beatification process started in 2001

Saint Richard Reynolds

Additional Memorial

25 October of one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

Profile

Educated at Christ's College and Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge; made a Fellow of Corpus Christi in 1510. Entered the Bridgittine Order in 1513 at Syon Abbey, Isleworth, England. Noted for his scholarship and personal holiness. Arrested on 28 April 1535 with Carthusian priors for the treason of refusing to acknowledge King Henry VIII as head of the Church. Martyr.

Canonized

Video

Saint Augustine Webster

Additional Memorials

• 4 May as one of the Carthusian Martyrs
• 25 October as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

Profile

Educated at Cambridge. Priest. Carthusian monk and prior of Our Lady of Melwood, a Carthusian house at Epworth, on the Isle of Axholme, North Lincolnshire, England in 1531. Imprisoned, tortured and martyred on the orders of Thomas Cromwell when he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy recognizing English royalty as head of the Church. Martyr.

Died

dragged through the street, beaten, hanged, drawn, and quartered on 4 May 1535 at Tyburn, London, England

Canonized

Saint Arbeo of Freising

Also known as

Aribo of Freising

Profile

Student under Saint Corbinian. Benedictine monk. First abbot at the Scharnitz Monastery at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in 763. Bishop of Freising, Germany in 765. He increased the reputation of the diocese for prosperity and religious devotion, founded several convents, and make the Freising cathedral school and library famous for its scholarship. Author of the first Latin-German dictionary. Wrote a biography of Saint Corbinian, and transferred his relics from Mais to Freising in 767.

Beatified

Saint Judas Cyriacus

Also known as

• Cyriacus of Ancona
• Judas Quiriacus
• Quiriace
• Quiriacus

Profile

Bishop of Ancona, Italy, possibly the first. Martyred, possibly while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. His name has led to much speculation about his origin, about which we know nothing for sure, and many legends, some blatantly anti-Jewish, have been attached to his story.

Patronage

Saint Antonius of Rocher

Profile

Sixth century Bendictine monk, and a disciple of Saint Benedictine himself. Sent to France by Saint Benedict to establish the Order there. Founded the Monastery of Saint-Julien in Tours, France, and served as its first abbot. Feeling a need for greater solitude, Antonius retired to spend his later years as a prayerful hermit at Le Rocher on the banks of the River Loire; the place is now known as Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher.

Died

Representation

Saint Enéour

Also known as

Enegwor, Enemour, Ener, Enevor

Profile

Brother of Saint Thumette, the two of them sailed on a stone from Wales to Bigouden in Brittany in northern France. 6th century hermit. No details of his life have survived, but many local oddities in the area have been linked to him with miraculous stories.

Born

Blessed Margareta Kratz

Also known as

• Margaret Kratz
• Margaretha Kratz

Profile

Premonstratensian nun in the monastery of Engelport, Germany, entering the Order in 1450, and living her faith for the next 82 years, even working with the poor during a famine in 1530 - at the age of 100.

Martyrs of Cirta

Also known as

• Martyrs of Cirtha
• Martyrs of Tzirta

Profile

A group of clergy and laity martyred together in Cirta, Numidia (in modern Tunisia) in the persecutions of Valerian. They were -
Agapius,
Antonia,
Emilian,
Secundinus and
Tertula,
along with a woman and her twin children whose names have not come down to us.